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Title: TENDERIZING NON-AGED BROILER BREASTS THROUGH HYDRODYNAMIC SHOCK WAVES

Author
item MEEK, KIMBERLY - VPI&SU
item CLAUS, JAMES - VPI&SU
item MARRIOTT, NORMAN - VPI&SU
item Solomon, Morse

Submitted to: International Congress of Meat Science and Technology Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/30/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Broiler processing involves a time consuming and costly aging step (e.g., storage space, equipment, purge loss and additional labor costs) for breast muscle in order to produce acceptably tender product. The poultry industry currently ages the breast muscles intact on the carcass for 4-7 hours prior deboning. Early deboning of non-aged breasts (immediately after the initial lchill) results in a tough product. The Hydrodyne process, a unique technol that utilizes a hydrodynamic shock wave to tenderize meat, provides process a potential approach to early deboned non-aged breasts without sacrificing product quality. Untrained taste panelists, as well as instrumental tenderness, measures detected distinct differences in tenderness between ea deboned and aged control breasts. The hydrodynamic shock wave treatment improved tenderness compared to early deboned samples but not equal to the control aged breasts.

Technical Abstract: The broiler industry faces the inability to effectively eliminate or significantly reduce the aging time required during the processing of boneless broiler breast meat. Breast meat must be aged on the carcass for 4 to 7 hours postmortem, which increases labor, refrigeration and storage costs. Additionally, during this extended storage, considerable weight is lost from the breasts due to purge. Early deboning of non-aged breasts (immediately after the initial chill) results in a tough product. The Hydrodyne process, a unique, new technology that utilizes a hydrodynamic shock wave to tenderize meat, may provide processors with the opportunity to eliminate or reduce the aging time. Packaged meat is immersed in water and a small amount of high explosive, suspended in the water, is detonated to create the shock wave. The objectives of this research are to determine the effects of the Hydrodyne process on non-aged breast tenderness compared dto that of traditionally aged counterparts and determine the applicability of the Hydrodyne process on improving tenderness of early boned broiler breasts. If tenderness improvements and savings are realized with the Hydrodyne process, increased price competitiveness and consistency in quality will prevail. Hydrodyne treatments resulted in an improvement in tenderness of non-aged breasts. Tenderness improvement resulting from the Hydrodyne treatment was affected by the location/distance of the explosive in the tank and breast location during treatment. Results suggest that the Hydrodyne process may have the commercial potential to eliminate the need for aging breast meat prior to boning.